Published 3:52 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The alleged victim was a 62-year-old employee of ProPark, the Hartford company that manages Stamford's municipal parking garages. Around 10:15 a.m. Monday, he was walking from the city-run parking garage on Bell Street when a man ran up behind him and snatched an envelope from his hands, Police Lt. Sean Cooney said.

The ProPark employee was taking the envelope to a Bedford Street bank to deposit its contents -- about $8,000.

Jonathan Ortiz, 22, of 70 Holcomb Ave., Stamford was arrested after the employee initially chased him through a Bedford Street parking lot adjacent to Broad Street, police said. Ortiz ducked through a back door into a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store on Broad Street, and the employee lost him, police said.

The ProPark employee then found an officer working an extra-duty job on Forest Street and gave him a description of the man he was chasing, police said. Officer Fred Ramon found a man matching the description in the McDonald's at Broad and Bedford streets.

He was breathing heavily and sweating, Cooney said.

Ramon detained the man, later identified as Ortiz, and the employee identified him as the man who swiped the envelope, Cooney said; a second witness also allegedly identified Ortiz.

Ortiz, who did not have the envelope, told police he was out of breath and sweating because he was jogging, Cooney said. About 20 minutes later, officers found the envelope stashed under a garbage container in the Bedford Street parking lot with the cash still inside it and they arrested Ortiz, police said.